Interesting perspective in this article.

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Ram It Through!

by Peter Beinart

The GOP argues it would be undemocratic for Democrats to pass health-care reform using reconciliation. But, Peter Beinart argues, that’s how our republic works.

Democrats are considering using the reconciliation process to pass health-care reform in the Senate, a maneuver that would require only 51 votes. Republicans are outraged. Using reconciliation to pass health care, they insist, would be undemocratic.

It’s an odd argument, when you think about it. Senate Republicans are employing the filibuster more than any Congress in history. (In the 19th Century, the Senate witnessed about one filibuster per decade. By the 1960s, filibusters still greeted less than ten percent of legislation. In this Congress, by contrast, Republicans have filibustered 80 percent of major bills). This near-permanent filibuster has created a de facto 60 vote requirement for passing most legislation. And because the GOP filibusterers disproportionately represent small states, that 60-vote requirement actually translates to about 2/3 of the American people. That, according to Republican logic, is democratic. Circumventing a filibuster and thus requiring 51 votes, by contrast, tramples the will of the people.

Republicans buttress their case with polls. The American people, they note, generally tell pollsters that they oppose the Democratic health-care bill. (In fact, surveys suggest that when you actually tell Americans what’s in it, they become more supportive). But let’s take the Republican argument on its face. Americans oppose Obama’s health-care reform and therefore, passing it is undemocratic.

The GOP actually has a point here: There is something undemocratic about passing laws that a majority of Americans oppose. We just don’t happen to live in a democracy; we live in a democratic republic. Instead of putting laws to a popular vote, as they did in ancient Athens, we elect members of Congress, and allow them to vote as they please.

Our entire political system, in fact, is premised on the right of members of Congress to act in defiance of their constituents as long as those members of Congress are willing to face those constituents at the ballot box. [snip]

All this would be pretty uncontroversial, I suspect, were it not for the media, which has trouble distinguishing between things that are unpopular and things that are wrong. [snip]

Read More @ The Daily Beast

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-- Edited by Sanders on Thursday 25th of February 2010 07:48:50 PM